Assam to publish final NRC on August 31, but Sarbananda Sonowal keeps option open for enacting law on final count 

Activists from Assam holding a demonstration demanding an error-free NRC, at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.

New Delhi: Assam’s chief minister, Sarbananda Sonowal, on Monday,, has confirmed that the final National Register of Citizens will be published on August 31, and also indicated that the government could later enact legislation on the enumeration process.

The Centre and the Assam government, in July, had asked the Supreme Court for an extension of the deadline for the publication of final NRC, which was set on July 31 and sample revivification of 20 per cent of names included in the list in districts closer to the Bangladesh border and 10 per cent revivification in other districts claiming the possibility of wrongful inclusions and exclusions in the NRC.

However, the apex court refused to grant permission for revivification, but, extended the deadline for the publication of final NRC to August 31. The state government had released partial data from the draft final NRC in the state Assembly on August 1.

Sonowal said, “You are aware that the Supreme Court has fixed a deadline for publication of the final NRC on August 31. When the draft NRC was published earlier, a lot of questions were raised. But people of Assam maintained peace. We are certain that when the final NRC is published, people will again maintain calm. The (Union) home minister has assured full support [in this regard] ... All our requirement for (security) forces would be fulfilled, we have been told.”

He was speaking to the media after meeting with the Union home minister Amit Shah in Delhi. It is speculated that he discussed measures to handle the law-and-order situation in Assam after the publication of the NRC with Amit Shah.

The parliamentary affairs minister, Chandra Mohan Patowary, has stated in a statement that the data of the applicants revealed that around 12.15 per cent names were excluded from the final draft. The percentages of excluded names are higher in the districts where indigenous people live compared to the districts close to the Bangladesh border, he said. According to the data, currently, over 41 lakh people have been excluded from the complete draft of the NRC.

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